THE COUNTRY OF MY SOUL

Day 4 of 21 Days to Forming A Writing Habit

Everyone has a soul country. Don’t they?

I don’t mean your home country, the country of your birth. I mean a foreign country that your soul becomes connected to. Perhaps the catalyst was an initial visit to that country and from then on it has been a constant love affair. Or perhaps, you have never yet visited the country but it tugs at your heartstrings.

The relationship with your soul country is definitely a romance. Just like when you see an attractive woman and you feel an instant connection to them, though you have never met them before. After that initial, chance meeting the chemistry is never diluted. You catch yourself thinking of them years later, despite the emotional link feeling like it was just yesterday.

For me, my soul country is Italy. Amore mio.

My first trip to Italy was in 1980 while in high school, in grade 8 actually. Sorrento, Amalfi, Naples, Pompeii, Rome, the Vatican. For a city kid from the prairie province of Saskatchewan in Canada, it was like stepping not just into another world, but onto another planet. Everything was different. The only similarities were the rising and setting of the sun, but even that seemed different.

For a kid that always enjoyed history, Italy was like being the proverbial kid in a candy store, or more appropriately, in a gelateria. Everywhere you look you are gazing through a time machine, Your daydreaming would carry you back anywhere from a few centuries to a couple of millennia. Back home, history was measured in decades, rarely much more than a century. In hindsight, this lack of history was the fault of our education system, as Canada’s indigenous population has lived on these lands for at least 10,000 years.

And what kid doesn’t like food. Italy is a culinary mecca. A cornetto for breakfast? More kinds of pasta than is unfathomable. And what isn’t there to tickle your tastebuds than gelato. Gelato alla banana was to die for. And Napoli pizza. My salivary glands are in overdrive just thinking about it.

Fast forward to adulthood and I had an opportunity to live in and explore the Napoli area for seven months. Instead of being restricted to the buses and tours of my childhood experience, now I was able to explore and experience on my own by train, taxi, on foot, and for a couple of months with my own set of wheels.

Italy off of the beaten track is an experience unto itself. A nonna popping out of the market with a basket full of fresh food for that night’s meal. Bambini and adult children dribbling a football everywhere. There is a reason Italy is always a World Cup contender. Driving in Napoli is not for the faint of heart. Yet one quickly gets into the rhythm of the traffic and understanding frantic hand gestures of course.

My storia d’amore continues this year as I will return to her loving embrace.

What is your soul country?

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